Social Transmission and the Spread of Modern Contraception in Rural Ethiopia. I think there’s too much emphasis on individual scale variables like female education, and not enough on broader cultural shifts. Both need to be focused upon. Some of the fertility drops across the world can’t just be explained by development. Rather, shifts in the Zeitgest result in smaller families, which then enable development, and so further reductions in fertility.

A Goodbye To Borders. Not a libertarian polemic. It’s about the book store. I think we’re looking at bimodality in terms of book purchase. It will be local and independent, or, it will be cyber-commoditized and faceless. No room for corporate bricks & mortar in between.

Goldman Sachs Disappoints With Earnings of $1.05 Billion. Barely 1 billion! Oh my. I’m still going on long on the proposition that GS will make money by screwing us over and then slapping us with a bill for the privilege of being their bitches in the near future. I really hope I’m being inordinately cynical and pessimistic. But then I suspect that g and decency are only mildly correlated.

Hot? Just been to the gym and I’m pumped – I’m the sexiest thing alive.

My direct RL experience is as you’ve said – more religious people put trust in the divine to protect them, so long as they say the right stuff, hold their mouths right, burn the right stuff, etc, instead of understanding risk, realizing there’s no-one micro-managing the universe, and taking practical steps to reduce their exposure. It doesn’t mean the more religious are less risk averse, just that they may not see that often risk mitigation is in their own hands.

Support from co-religionists may also be a false hope – when the shit hits the fan, kneeling down and praying is usually not the most useful response, and there’s nothing to say that the more religious are more altruistic.

On bookstores: in Ottawa, a local independent bookstore actually expanded, taking over an adjacent lot and pulling down the wall. Meanwhile, Indigo (a Canadian big box chain bookstore – the only one, AFAIK) expanded it kids section in various locations. I’m guessing they are seeing the writing on the wall, and are expanding into a market that can’t be so easily digitized.

chris w

“Killings in Norway Spotlight Anti-Muslim Thought in U.S.. I’ve read Gates of Vienna before. Despite my anti-multiculturalist attitudes I generally departed with them over their sloppy marshaling of history.”

They have a good daily news feed though. I haven’t read many of their opinion pieces.

“Fugitives, and Others, in Pursuit of Vice Find Thailand’s Liberties to Be a Virtue. Unbelievable.”

Vegetarian diet – They are not distinguishing between soluble and insoluble fibre, which could be seriously misleading. Types of meat could also be significant, e.g. blood proteins present in beef that are typically not present in other meat because of the way the animals are slaughtered.

Mercy

“(they converted, at the time they were very not Muslim. Now they engage in quasi-apologia for reactionary Muslim behavior like death threats against blasphemers).”

This isn’t really that strange (or uncommon IME), when you consider the views that tend to cluster with islamophobia – anti-liberal, anti-feminist, anti-Marxist … anti-West basically. And it’s not like they’ve changed their mind about the big issue, that the West and Islam are incompatible; they’ve just switched sides after realising the futility of trying to resurrect the pre-socialist west. I suspect the racial associations, and a romantic attachment to european culture, are the only thing keeping the rest of them from jumping ship. I suppose that’s the irony you meant, that they were converted due to views picked up in opposition, like neoconservatives who believe in the unlimited power of imperialism because of their time as trotskyites.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp Razib Khan

#8, she was a neoconservative. not socially conservative either. anyway, i’m an islamophobe just so you know

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About Razib Khan

I have degrees in biology and biochemistry, a passion for genetics, history, and philosophy, and shrimp is my favorite food. In relation to nationality I'm a American Northwesterner, in politics I'm a reactionary, and as for religion I have none (I'm an atheist). If you want to know more, see the links at http://www.razib.com